The group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, says two pipelines have been vandalised 42 times in 2017 alone.

The NNPC boss made this known while delivering a keynote address at the maiden edition of the Nigerian International Pipeline Technology and Security Conference (NIPITECS 2017) in Abuja on Wednesday.

According to him, the two pipelines affected are Trans Forcados pipeline and Trans Niger Pipeline.

Baru said the Trans Forcados pipeline has been vandalised 15 times while the Trans Niger pipeline has been hit 27 times, adding that an average of 700,000 barrels of crude oil was deferred in 2016, which made production drop to 1.3 million barrels per day.

In February 2016, Shell, operators of the Trans Forcados pipeline, had declared a force majuere after the pipeline was vandalised. It only resumed operations in May 2017.